Safety control systems are included in most process-controlled assemblies to provide the assemblies with the ability to shut down. Multiple types of safety systems exist. Emergency stop safety systems typically operate to remove power from the entire assembly, while other safety systems may stop the flow of liquid or gas, or otherwise stop the process being controlled. Emergency stop safety systems typically found in industrial applications are connected directly to the main system's source of power. Sensors included in the safety system are able to detect failure conditions within the assembly and responsively activate the safety system, which in turn removes power from the assembly.
Industrial applications that employ an emergency stop safety system rely on the system's ability to interact with the applications' components to stop current flow through the application and further safely redistribute all power out of the assembly. Furthermore, these applications typically integrate the components necessary to implement the emergency stop safety system into the larger process controlled application. Such a configuration can be disadvantageous because it provides no alternative to removing power from the entirety of the system. Additionally, safety systems that integrate the circuits and mechanical systems necessary to implement an emergency stop safety system can be application specific, not versatile, and require costly and often complicated installation.
Electro-mechanical systems similarly utilize emergency stop safety sub-systems that remove all power from the main system when an emergency event is detected. It may be inappropriate to design an autonomous vehicle that responds to an emergency event by removing power from all components within the autonomous vehicle. Such a design would fail to address the need for an autonomous vehicle to retain a level of autonomy despite encountering an emergency event that causes a power loss. Autonomous vehicles rely on control systems included within vehicle to continue collecting data and to further provide the user and vehicle with a system through which the autonomous vehicle can communicate.